At long last, Spotify Miniplayer launches on the desktop
It has been an extraordinarily long time coming, but Spotify has finally launched the miniplayer that users have been requesting for years.
The arrival of Spotify Miniplayer sees the music streaming service catching up with the likes of Apple Music. The new discreet player floats over other running apps, and gives users a choice of UI designs to switch between.
Which comes first? The pentest or the bug bounty program? [Q&A]
Bug bounty and penetration testing programs are often grouped as interchangeable, but they perform distinct functions.
To determine whether both deserve a place within a cybersecurity strategy, it is important to understand their specific qualities and how they have matured over recent years. We spoke to Chris Campbell, lead solutions engineer at HackerOne, to learn more.
Microsoft launches .NET Smart Components to give developers AI-powered UI controls
There is just about no field of technology that is not somehow being enhanced by artificial intelligence. Microsoft has already shown its own love of AI by introducing it to various aspects of Windows and other products, and the latest release from the company is .NET Smart Components.
These are described as "AI-powered UI controls" that Microsoft says can be quickly and easily add to .NET apps. Billed, unsurprisingly, as "genuinely useful", the company says the components remove the need to "spend weeks of dev time redesigning your UX or researching machine learning and prompt engineering".
Meta enters the fediverse by allowing some users to cross post between Threads and other platforms such as Mastodon
The groundswell of interest in the fediverse really kicked off when Elon Musk took over at Twitter, renamed it X, and made a seemingly endless series of controversial changes and decisions. A large number of users sought new homes, and the likes of Bluesky and Mastodon reaped the benefits.
Another recent entrant into the social arena is Threads -- Meta's answer to X. For quite some time there has been talk about plans to plug Threads into the fediverse, much to the disgust of many Mastodon users. Now this day has rolled around, with Mark Zuckerberg announcing that fediverse integration is now available to some users in beta.
Microsoft confirms that KB5035857 update is causing serious memory leak problems in Windows Server
Following complaints from large numbers of system administrators, Microsoft has finally acknowledged that there are problems with the recently released KB5035857 update for Windows Server.
The March 2024 security update was released 10 days ago, and it did not take long for users to start experiencing problems. Now Microsoft has confirmed that it is aware of an issue with Kerberos requests on domain controllers which may cause LSASS memory leaks. [UPDATE: there is now a fix available]
Zero Trust: Moving beyond the chewy centre of cybersecurity
As modern technology becomes increasingly complex, so does the task of securing it. Adding to the complexity is the proliferation of decentralised technology such as cloud adoption and IoT (Internet of Things), and the move to remote working which have changed how cybersecurity experts craft the defences for their systems.
In simpler days, IT systems were comparatively easy to ring-fence, as there was a solidly defined corporate security perimeter, or “trust boundary.” This formed the basis of the classic, trust-based security strategy, where any user inside the boundary was implicitly trusted by default, and anyone outside the boundary was denied access. Being connected to the private network was the only verifiable credential needed to access the system and all its data.
Microsoft means business with new Surface devices
Whilst Microsoft's Surface devices have been around for a few years and have many features that make them attractive for business users, there's never been a version aimed specifically at businesses… Until now.
With the launch of Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business the company is targeting the business market with features including improved performance and battery life, more ports, better security and custom, durable anti-reflective displays.
Communications service providers see Gen AI as critical but are slow to implement it
A new study shows 90 percent of communications service providers (CSP) see the profound impact Gen AI will have on business goals. However, deployment of GenAI is still in its preliminary stages, with just 22 percent of CSPs having already implemented solutions.
Research by Analysys Mason for Amdocs shows Gen AI is expected to have a high impact across a variety of areas, such as software development (84 percent), data management (82 percent), monetization (82 percent) and network operations (81 percent).
Third-party breaches create network weak spots
A new report from Black Kite shows how third-party data breaches create critical weak spots in extended networks, potentially leaving businesses open to cyber attacks, which can have a negative ripple effect across the organization and its stakeholders.
The report is based on analysis of 81 vendor breaches impacting 251 companies in 2023. Unauthorized network access was the leading cause of breaches, accounting for over half (53 percent) of third-party breach incidents. This represents a 26 percent increase from 2022, with ransomware being the most common method of compromise.
Apricorn announces a 24TB hardware encrypted USB drive
Apricorn, a leading manufacturer of software-free, hardware-encrypted USB data storage devices, has unveiled a 24TB version of its Aegis Padlock DT and Padlock DT FIPS Desktop Drives.
The drives are fully hardware-based and offer military-grade 256-bit AES XTS encryption. They also have onboard keypad PIN authentication and ultra-fast USB 3.2 (3.0) data transfer speeds.
Google restores Dark Mode support for websites in Chrome
Google Chrome users may once again enforce dark mode support for web content in the web browser. The feature has been in the making for a long time. Sofia talked about it more than five years ago here on BetaNews.
While Google did add support for a dark Chrome interface in the past, it never rolled out the option to display darker versions of webpages.
Microsoft is finally adding a spell checker to Notepad in Windows 11
While Microsoft is keen on deprecating features and apps, it has also been engaged in injecting new life into legacy apps in recent years -- just look at how Paint has evolved, for instance. The company has also been slowly but surely updating another software stalwart, Notepad.
Having already added a tabbed interface, an auto-save feature and, of course, a dash of AI, Microsoft is a now set to add a spell checking. It does not end there, though. In addition to a highly customizable spell checker, there will also be an autocorrect feature -- and considerations have been made for developers and coders.
Surprise! Customization tool ObjectDock updated so you can add a macOS dock to Windows 11
Here's a blast from the past for you -- ObjectDock. After lying dormant for several years, the customization utility has suddenly been updated by Stardock to add support for Windows 10 and Windows 11.
This is great news for anyone who is not a fan of the Windows 11 Start menu and taskbar, as it adds a macOS-style dock to the desktop which can be used instead. The newly updated app is now 64-bit and it's a welcome -- and surprising -- return almost a decade after the last release.
AMD FSR 3.1 announced at GDC 2024
At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024, AMD revealed the latest update to its FidelityFX Super Resolution technology, FSR 3.1. This announcement follows the release of AMD FSR 3 in September 2023, which introduced advanced frame generation technology and a new "Native AA" quality mode, supported across a wide range of graphics cards from AMD and other vendors.
FSR 3 has seen rapid adoption in the gaming industry, with 40 games now available or soon to be released with FSR 3 support. Key titles include "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora," "Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth," "Starfield," and "The Last of Us Part I."
Google Research unveils AI-driven global flood forecasting system
Google Research has made a significant breakthrough in global flood forecasting, utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to expand access to reliable flood forecasts, particularly in regions where data is scarce. Floods, being the most common natural disaster, inflict approximately $50 billion in financial damages annually and affect nearly 1.5 billion people worldwide. The advent of this AI-based system marks a crucial step in improving early warning systems, potentially saving thousands of lives each year.
The research showcases the use of machine learning (ML) technologies to enhance flood forecasting on a global scale. This advancement has extended the reliability of nowcasts from zero to five days on average and has improved forecasts across Africa and Asia to levels comparable to those in Europe. The evaluation of these models was conducted in collaboration with the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF).
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